John Capreolus

English

To Gregory's first argument against the first and second conclusions, the major is denied — speaking of being dear and accepted formally, not merely extrinsically.

Then to the first proof of that antecedent I say that it is impossible for the Holy Spirit to be given to any creature unless the gift of sanctifying grace is given to it, as was shown above at distinction 14 out of St Thomas; because a created gift belongs to the very account of that giving, in the manner set out there.

And even granted that the Holy Spirit were given to a man without an infused habit, that man still would not be called accepted formally, or worthy of eternal life; because the Holy Spirit cannot be a form of the creature rendering it formally worthy — that is done by a created habit. Whence St Thomas, De veritate q. 27 a. 1 ad 1: «God, he says, gives life to the soul not as a formal cause but as an efficient cause; and so some form falls between. As a painter makes a wall white effectively, by the mediation of whiteness, whereas whiteness does so by the mediation of no form, because it makes it white formally.» — Thus he. So in the present case: the Holy Spirit makes a man worthy of eternal life effectively, but habitual grace or charity makes him worthy formally.

To the second proof of the said antecedent the antecedent is conceded, but the consequence is denied in the sense in which we are speaking — namely that someone, according to the state in which he would be without the habitual gift, would be […]

Fresh draft (Claude), approved by Wilson Pruitt · cc-by · published at bonaventure.wrootpress.com. This page quotes it; that is its home.

Latin

Johannes Capreolus, Defensiones theologiae divi Thomae Aquinatis, ed. Paban–Pègues, Tours 1900, vol. 2, Dist. XVII q.1, ad argumenta Gregorii contra primam et secundam conclusiones · pd

Notes

The most direct engagement anywhere in this edition: a Thomist of 1426 answering a named fourteenth-century opponent argument by argument. His whole reply turns on one distinction — the Holy Spirit makes a man worthy of eternal life EFFECTIVE, habitual grace or charity makes him worthy FORMALITER — with Thomas's painter and the white wall for an illustration. He concedes the second proof's antecedent outright and denies only its consequence. ⛔ What he stages is not on this page as its authors' own words: Gregory's three arguments and Scotus's three (which Capreolus has apud Aureolum, at second hand) are reported here, and reporting is not witnessing. Gregory stands on this page only on his own leaf.

Threads

• → contests · Gregory of Rimini
  Capreolus answers Gregory by name and by reference, and the reference is to the article Gregory announces on the leaf rostered here: Contra primam et secundam conclusiones insimul arguit Gregorius (1 Sentent., dist. 17, q. 1, art. 2). Gregory's own words for that article are Secundus erit utrum hoc sit possibile de potentia absoluta dei. Capreolus's answer: negatur maior, loquendo de charo et accepto formaliter, non solum extrinsece. ⛔ Gregory's three arguments themselves are on this page only as Capreolus reports them, and they are not a witness for Gregory; his article 2 is unread from his own print (n172–n177).
• → parallel · Gabriel Biel
  The same distinction settles the question for both benches, sixty years apart, with no citation between them. Capreolus, defending the created habit: Spiritus Sanctus facit hominem dignum vita aeterna effective, sed gratia habitualis vel charitas facit hominem dignum formaliter. Biel, explaining away the Master's thesis: quod si intelligitur formaliter, non tenetur; si effective, verum est, quia ipse infundit habitum charitatis. By the fifteenth century the formaliter/effective couple is common property, and the benches disagree about what to do with it rather than about whether it holds.
• → transmits · John Capreolus
  The reply defends the conclusion: Ad primum Gregorii contra primam et secundam conclusiones. Capreolus's second conclusion is one of the two the staged arguments are aimed at, so the two witnesses are one act of argument split at the point where objection turns into answer.
• → transmits · Thomas Aquinas
  The distinction Capreolus answers the fourteenth century with is the last sentence of this article. Thomas: caritas non dicitur agere in animam per modum efficientis, sed solum formaliter. Capreolus: Spiritus Sanctus facit hominem dignum vita aeterna effective, sed gratia habitualis vel charitas facit hominem dignum formaliter — with Thomas's own painter and white wall for the illustration. A hundred and seventy years, and the instrument is unchanged.
• ← parallel · John Capreolus
  Two halves of one defence rostered on different pages of this edition: the division of the gifts here, and the formal/effective answer to the absolute-power objection on crux 4. Both are conclusions of the same question in the Defensiones, and each is unintelligible without the other — the division says what the created gifts do, the reply says what the Spirit still does.